Hey, where'd hells_half_acre go? You've been asking yourself. She hasn't posted anything since yesterday, and she hasn't done a rewatch post since Monday - I thought she was unemployed and the only thing she did all day was watch and talk about Supernatural?

Well, let me explain...

Today I was an extra! Now I am sleepy. The end.

Ok, fine...I was an extra on Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3. It was the first time I had ever done it, so it was an interesting experience. I've never watched the Wimpy Kid movies, so I had no idea who was who or what was going on...apparently Steve Zahn is in this one. His was the only name I recognized. There were also these adorable little twins playing one boy.

Like most things that film in Vancouver on sunny days, it was trying to pretend that we were in California - so everyone had to wear summer clothes and pretend like it was warmer than 16 degrees in the sun. We shot on the Stevenson Broadwalk. I'm in the background for all those shots, because costumes put me in this beige shirt - and then the background director guy kept trying to put me in the foreground, and costumes would come along and be like "ugh no! she's wearing BEIGE! She can't be in the foreground." Which was actually fine by me.

As I mentioned, I don't know anything about these movies - but I did notice that everyone was a much worse actor than Jared Padalecki...he was the only one I really have to compare to, since Supernatural is the only other set I've ever been on. But hey, these were like, 12 year old kids, and an over-the-top family....and it's a kids movie...so I'm sure they are supposed to be cheesy with too deliberate phrasing.

Anyway, in the afternoon we moved to a "pool" scene. I ended up in the foreground of the background, because they put me in a different outfit. I kind of liked the outfit. It was a red skirt (which I own) and this cute red and white top...they left it open to ample cleavage levels, because I was wearing a swim suit underneath. I love how if you are wearing a bikini, you can show off the girls in a children's movie, but if you are wearing a bra then that would be scandalous...even though they are the SAME THING. They also put me in these stupid orange flipflops that clashed HORRIBLY with the skirt. It was horrible.

In my scene we are in the parking lot of the municiple pool and I am getting stuff out of the trunk with another girl, while "my kids" get impatient and run-off ahead of us. I decided that we must be a lesbian couple who had kids in their teens. At one point the extras director called my partner the "older sister", but the actress was only 5 years younger than me, so I thought that my idea of the lesbian couple was better.

Anyway, it was freezing. I was there for 11 hours in the cold the whole time, and I had to wake up at 5:30am in order to do it...and it only pays minimum wage. Though, they used my car in the parking lot scene, so I get an extra $35 for that.

The awesomest thing though was that I met someone who was killed by Castiel on Supernatural! He was one of the angel dudes in the warehouse in Van Nuys in 5x18 Point of No Return. He was a super nice guy. He does stunts usually. He's hoping to change his look enough that Supernatural will have him back on this season. He said that he really loved working there - from the sounds of it, Supernatural and Fringe are his two favourites. He said that everyone was really really nice on both sets. He is also a big fan of Supernatural.

He really thinks I should tell my agency that I want to be on Supernatural. I was always conflicted about that, because I hate spoilers...but damn, after hanging out on the set the other night, I kind of do want to do it.

Doing background work is also interesting in terms of continuity of the background....they don't seem to care THAT much. I mean, they care about wardrobe and hair, but they don't care about who you hang out with in what scenes. So, we were making jokes at one point, because me and this other guy were in the parking lot unloading our "families" and then later we were in a scene where we were chatting together at the pool...so we figured that we were cheating on our pretend spouses and were homewreckers. Earlier in the day, I was walking behind the family with someone as they went to get icecream, and then when they did their scene from a different angle, I was suddenly in the background on a bench, sitting beside another person.

Anyway, yeah, whenever that movie comes out - if any of you are forced to watch it because you have children...you can keep an eye out for me. I'm the one in the beige. And then I'm the lesbian mother in a cute outfit with clashy flipflops, and then I'm a homewrecker talking to a shirtless dude at the pool (still with clashy flipflops).

Now I am so exhausted that I don't even feel like eating. Thank goodness I know myself and prepared a meal yesterday to pop in the microwave.

I also have notes on another rewatch post. I'll see if I get to those tonight, or if I pass out first.

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Comments

Sounds like you must have had quite the experience! I like your back stories too...much better than what they came up with!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is the most popular book in our library. I think we have something like ten copies (and we rarely buy more than one of anything) in hardcover. If you mention your role, you're sure to be extremely popular with the 3rd to 7th grade set!

You should try to get on the Supernatural set. I bet you wouldn't be spoiled too much...maybe for a scene or two, but you wouldn't know the whole story. So you could still be partly in the dark!

Yes, it was fun to have back stories. One of the guys that I was working with was really funny between takes, because he would tell his "daughter" that she was adopted and then go into long fatherly rants about how "back in my day..." He had us all laughing - "just getting into character!"

I should find out if my nieces or nephews like the books/movies. Then I'd be the cool Aunt, instead of the awkward one that is not good with children. :P

(wow. check out all those !!!!s.)Haha, I do the same thing in comments all the time.

Spoilers, schmoilers. You wouldn't have them in context, and I can't help but think that you'd have a richer appreciation of the show.

Also, I am absurdly happy to hear that random extra guy says that the Fringe people are nice. All my favorite shows have nice people!

ETA: Plus I am totally envious. A few years ago, I had a joke with a friend about us running away to Vancouver to become extras for a syndicated sci-fi show. It was our "life sucks, let's go do something really random!" fantasy.

Oh yeah. It wasn't a new career/living kind of fantasy...it was more along the lines of running away to join the circus ;) but still! LIVE THE DREAM.

also, re: fringe. Peter AND Olivia (or Astrid, I suppose)? AND Broyles? I mean, no Walter means there was still the possibility for more awesomeness, but still. That is pretty head-explode-y right there.

My "join the circus" fantasy was to become a university professor...I think I got that fantasy backwards.

Right, it was Peter and Olivia that he was in the scene with. It was a fairly monumental scene as it culminated with someone's heart being torn out or something (as you can tell, I don't watch the show). It didn't sound like Broyles was in the scene, but he met him. He didn't meat Walter, but he's a big fan of his.

OH MY GOD, I bet I know which episode it was. Maybe. You know. Hearts do get torn out sometimes, literally and figuratively. But there was an awesome episode in which a depressed, very stoned Walter tells Olivia's niece a story- a kind of fairy-tale /comic book/ film noir thing. The mcguffin is a glass heart, and there's a scene with a whole lot of random Observers (i.e. extras) break in to a house Olivia and Peter are in and steal the glass heart right out of Peter's chest.

Anyway, yeah, whenever that movie comes out - if any of you are forced to watch it because you have children...you can keep an eye out for me. I'm the one in the beige. And then I'm the lesbian mother in a cute outfit with clashy flipflops, and then I'm a homewrecker talking to a shirtless dude at the pool (still with clashy flipflops).

Makes sense that they're not concerned about continuity for the extras. You folks are most likely out of focus sometimes anyway. And overall, if the story and acting are working, people aren't going to be paying that close attention to the background anyway. Not to mean you aren't important, you are! It's just that bodies are needed to give the scene life, so that's very important.

Very cool that you ran into someone who was on SPN. I'm sure they hop from one production to another but it's always good to hear yet again that the crew of SPN is so friendly. :D

Yeah, we knew we weren't important - we would joke around about that when no one was listening. We'd point out all the continuity mistakes in the background, and then just laugh at ourselves, because we were really only human props.

One girl, who is a former actress (she was in Look Who's Talking with John Travolta) kept changing how she was sitting, and one of the background wranglers chastised her for it - but after the wrangler left, she rolled her eyes and pointed out that we were about 30 feet from the camera (which was doing a close-up shot) and there were about 3 clumps of people blocking us from view on top of that. There was no way people would be looking at her legs. :P

Yeah, I when I asked "so, did you have a good time on set?", he replied "are you kidding me! I wanted to stay forever!" Hahaha...so yeah, obviously friendly. ;)

Bahahaha, sounds like you had a good time despite the cold weather! Extra'ing can be pretty fun if you have the right crowd to do it with, I'm glad you had a good time! A few years ago I extra'd in this made-for-tv-movie about a gambling addicted guy. I spent the entire time playing actual poker with other extras having a made up fight. Good times!

I suppose I could if I did it enough to join the union, then my pay for it would double, and I could live off of that even if I only did it part time. The problem is getting to that point...and the fact that I don't actually like being on camera. :P

For now though, it's a nice way to earn a little bit of money while I try to find a job.